I received a partial refund (enough that I'm willing to 'risk' using the drives)
Speed isn't much of a concern as read/write will be limited to my internet connection.
They've apparently been running near 24/7 as they are only about 960 days old but have 833 days of runtime.
That being said, they will be in a zfs mirror and the data is not critical.
I'm aware that Seagate sux, but apparently WD's 2.5" externals have the USB controller built into the drive, so they cannot be shucked.
As for your WD sux comment, "I reject your reality and substitute my own", I've got a WD drive in my server at over 98,000 POH and Hard Disk Sentinel reports it as "perfect health."
Also, you forgot Fujitsu.
I am looking to expand the storage in my SFF server so I ordered 2 Seagate 5TB 2.5" Expansion external HDDs on eBay that were listed as " Open box: An item in excellent, NEW condition with NO WEAR." and "1 year Manufacturer Warranty". I received 2 drives in their original packaging (matching SNs and I will note the packaging was damaged, so I thought they must've opened them to inspect/test the drives before reselling) but when I connected them to my computer and opened CrystalDiskInfo they both have over 20,000 Power on hours! I am currently running them through SeaTools and one has a SMART flag for Air Flow Temperature "Failed in the past". Seagate's site lists both as warranty expired in mid 2022. The seller does not accept returns, but since this is an inaccurate listing, I've reached out to them to see if they will make it right (they have 100% positive feedback).
"New" Drives I ordered on eBay have 20,000 Power on Hours and questionable SMART status
Now onto the question, the drives inside both are ST5000LM000 (according the CrystalDiskInfo), which has been out for a while now. What kind of life are people getting out of these disks? Are these drives failing at the 30k POH mark or are these a 50k+ POH drive? I will be running the disks in ZFS and the data probably wont be super crucial (Linux ISOs mostly) but I don't want to have to deal with a bad drive in the near future.